Microsoft Acquires Winternals Software

By Alexandra DeFelice
Jul 19, 2006 11:43 AM PT

Microsoft announced Tuesday that that it has acquired Winternals Software and plans to appoint the company's co-founder a technical fellow.

Privately held Winternals provides systems recovery and data protection solutions to Windows-based enterprises and offers free software tools called Sysinternals. The acquisition advances Microsoft's promise to lower the total cost of ownership of the Windows platform, according to the software giant.

Troubleshooting Products

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell established Winternals in 1996 with the goal of developing advanced technologies for Windows, and have since worked on a range of products designed for systems troubleshooting and management.

"There's nothing more satisfying for me than to see our ideas and their implementation have a positive impact. That's what makes being acquired by Microsoft especially exciting and rewarding," Russinovich wrote on his blog Tuesday.

New Challenges

As a technical fellow, Russinovich will serve in Microsoft's platform and services division.

"I'll be working on challenging projects that span the entire Windows product line and directly influence subsequent generations of the most important operating systems on the planet," he said. "From security to virtualization to performance to a more manageable application model, there's no end of interesting areas to explore and innovate."

Cogswell, meanwhile, will join the Windows Component Platform Team in the role of software architect.

Deep Expertise

"I've had my eye on Mark for some time. The work he and Bryce have completed in system recovery and data protection illustrates the depth of thinking and skill they will bring to future versions of Windows," said Jim Allchin, co-president of the platforms and services division at Microsoft. "The addition of their deep kernel-level expertise to our existing strong talent will help provide us with the edge we need to continue to raise the quality and functionality bar for Windows on both the client and the server."

The Redmond, Wash-based company is evaluating how Winternals' products and technologies can be integrated within Microsoft offerings to maximize customer value. The products all are focused on reducing the total cost of ownership for Microsoft-based businesses and supporting IT professionals. "Some will find their way into existing Microsoft products or Windows itself, and others will continue on as Microsoft-branded products," Russinovich said.

Sysinternals enjoys a strong and active community of systems administrators and support personnel, averaging about a million visitors per month, according to Microsoft. Its tools will continue to be free to download and its Web site will remain active while Microsoft determines "the best way to integrate it into [the company's] own community efforts," Russinovich said.